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Technical Topics => Equipment => Topic started by: K5KNT on October 11, 2013, 1834 UTC

Title: Could No Signal Indicate a Bad Oscillator
Post by: K5KNT on October 11, 2013, 1834 UTC

I recently found my NooElec Ham it Up converter that had been put away in April. The converter had yet to be used so I thought I would connect it up and see how it worked. I still had SDR# installed on my Windows 7 VM running on my iMac that I have been playing with using the NooElec R820T dongle.

After getting everything connected and using a Kaito KA31 amplifed active loop antenna I first tried listening to the local weather radio (162.5MHz) and I was receiving a strong signal with the upconverter switch in the bypass position. I then used an old Radio Shack shortwave receiver I have to locate a shortwave signal. I was able to hear WWV on 15MHz so I tried to tune the SDR to that.   After moving the switch to the enabled position I lost all signals appearing on the display.  The upconverter power indicator is on.  When I picked it up the oscillator fell out. I noticed that there was no change in the SDR display with the oscillator in or out.  I replaced the oscillator making sure the dots were aligned (I also checked this when I first connected the upconverter). 

The oscillator fits very loosely in the socket, so I'm not really sure if it is making proper contact.

Could this be why I'm not getting any signal or would this be caused by other issues?

Thanks,

Kent

Title: Re: Could No Signal Indicate a Bad Oscillator
Post by: redhat on October 12, 2013, 1746 UTC

..Sounds like a logical solution :)

+-RH

Title: Re: Could No Signal Indicate a Bad Oscillator
Post by: K5KNT on October 14, 2013, 1459 UTC

I have ordered an AFREDI SDR-net this weekend so I am not going to worry about getting this up converter to work.